IRC History - PLANET

The
UFO Phenomenon exists. It has been with us throughout
history. It is physical in nature and it remains unexplained
in terms of contemporary science. It represents a level
of consciousness that we have not yet recognized, and
which is able to manipulate dimensions beyond time and
space as we understand them.

The Planning Network (PLANET) was the first ARPANET chat
system, predating the Internet. PLANET was invented by Jacques
Vallee, Roy Amara, Robert Johansen, and others from the Institute
of the Future in 1973. It was the first chat program designed
for the ARPANET, and enabled anybody on the network to log into
the system. PLANET was used in a series of evaluation studies,
and had a considerable influence on those that used it and later
research.

Unlike some other conferencing systems, PLANET was originally
designed for use by planners in government and industry, who
were unlikely to have any previous computer experience, and so
was designed from the beginning for maximum ease of use. For
example, the commands were made as simple as possible, and the
system was designed to be operated with just a few keys on a
specially built portable telecommunications terminal. The PLANET
application later evolved into the application Notepad, a global
conferencing system that was used by a number of corporate clients
such as Shell Oil.

As is somehow appropriate for someone that named his chat system "PLANET",
Vallee later became involved in the field of UFO research and
wrote a number of books on the phenomenon. However, his skepticism
about the sometimes outlandish ideas of the mainstream UFO community
made him an something of an outcast -- what he called a "heretic
among heretics". His own ideas were much more complex --
he once said "I will be disappointed if UFOs turn out to be nothing
more than spaceships."